Tu ne cede malis

Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito
Translation:  Do not give in to evil, but proceed ever more boldly against it.

Virgil, Aeneid 
Also used by Ludwig von Mises as his personal motto.

Unlimited Submission

The several States composing the United States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their General Government.

Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky Resolutions (1798-1799)

How to Destroy a Book

Anyone who claims that readers can’t and won’t and shouldn’t own their books are bent on the destruction of the book, the destruction of publishing, and the destruction of authorship itself.

 Cory Doctorow

Terrorism

We were told we were fighting terrorists, but the real terrorist was me and the real terrorism is this occupation.

Michael Prysner, US Soldier and Anti-War campaigner, March 2008

Foreign Aid

Past US foreign aid has gone to Idi Amin, Julius Nyerere, Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot (even after Pol Pot killed 25% of Cambodia's population). We also gave money to North Vietnam, helped fund the Taliban government of Afghanistan, gave nuclear reactors to North Korea, and back in the day helped the Pakistani spy agency ISI build up a real gung-ho guy named Osama Bin Laden. And of course it was also the ISI which made the Taliban powerful enough to take Afghanistan in the first place.

 Bill Walker 12/24/09

Robbery and Local Law and Respect

I had seen with my own eyes, buckskin purses half full of gold-dust, lying on a rock near the road-side, while the owners were working some distance off. So I was not afraid of robbery.

Fischer and Holmes in Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West

Defense

In a State of Nature, it is true, that a Man of superior Force may beat or rob me; but then it is true, that I am at full Liberty to defend myself, or make Reprisal by Surprize or by Cunning, or by any other way in which I may be superior to him. But in Political Society ... if I attempt to avenge myself, the whole Force of that Society is ready to complete my Ruin.

Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society (1757), original spelling and punctuation.

Torture and Religious Humiliation

"torture and religious humiliation are permissible tools for a government to use."

Donald Rumsfield's lawyer (12/15/2009) regarding Guantanamo prisoners.

Suspected Enemy Combatant

...anyone who is arbitrarily declared a “suspected enemy combatant” by the president or his designated minions is no longer a “person.” They will simply cease to exist as a legal entity.

 Chris Floyd (12/18/2009) on a recent Supreme Court ruling

Automatic for the People

My work is my life, and my life is my work. I invented this assault rifle to defend my country. Today, I am proud that it has become for many synonymous with liberty.

Mikhail Kalashnikov (Designer of the AK-47)

Einsteinian War Weapons

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Albert Einstein (In a letter to President Harry S Truman)

Franklin and the Unseen

All human situations have their inconveniences. We feel those of the present but neither see nor feel those of the future; and hence we often make troublesome changes without amendment, and frequently for the worse.

Benjamin Franklin

Dollar is Down

no Dollars, we want Euros

Egyptian Street Vendors

Nullification is Back!

"We (Missourians) don't like it when people try to take away our freedom," ... "We will maintain the right to purchase health care however we chose. This national health care debate is not about health care as much as it is about redistribution of the wealth. This resolution allows voters to say don't redistribute our wealth here in Missouri."

Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon, The Missourian

Voting and Government

Every two years in this country there exists a mania we call elections ... This, each person believes, will improve/change the government apparatus and everyone will be better served. This is analogous to believing that if one could place the right person on my Harley it would perform the tasks of a dump truck. The machine (government) can only accomplish that which it was designed to do: all governments, in their evolutionary process, eventually turn on their progenitors; the machine eventually rules the individual, no matter what "safeguards" have been put in place.

Michael Gaddy (Oct 5th, 2009)

Obama Doctrine

It’s already being called the “Obama Doctrine” – a notion that foreign policy is a struggle of good and evil, that American exceptionalism has blunted the force of tyranny in the world, and that U.S. military can be a force for good and even harnessed to humanitarian ends.

Politico.com ("Conservative praise for Nobel speech", 12/10/2009)

Grade Inflation

[A] bachelor of Arts degree in 1997 may not be the equal of a graduation certificate from an academic high school in 1947.

 An article in the Wall Street Journal (1/30/97)

The Left and the Climate

And where has the left been while the whole world is being Nazified? Worrying about my barbecue grill out back.

 Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. (12/07/2009)

An Industrial Population

There are today on the plains of India and China men and women, plague-ridden and hungry, living lives little better, to outward appearance, than those of the cattle that toil with them by day and share their places of sleep at night. Such Asiatic standards, and such unmechanized horrors, are the lot of those who increase their numbers without passing through an industrial revolution.

T.S. Ashton, The Industrial Revolution (1961)

Johnny Got His Gun (2nd quote)

Hospital Offical: He won't wait for an answer. All he says is, "Kill me, kill me, kill me."
Third Doctor: Don't you have some message for him, Padre?
[Priest shakes his head and looks to the floor]
Third Doctor: You could at least tell him to put his faith in God, couldn't you?
Priest: I'll pray for him for the rest of my days. But I will not risk testing his faith against your stupidity.
Third Doctor: Well you're a hell of a priest, aren't you?
Priest: He's the product of your profession, not mine.

 Johnny Got His Gun (1971 Movie)

Johnny Got His Gun

Joe: When it comes my turn, will you want me to go?
Father: For democracy, any man would give his only begotten son. 

Johnny Got His Gun (1971 Movie)

Two Advil

Is 30 thousand troops the military equivalent to two advil?!

Jon Stewart on the Daily Show (Dec 2nd, 2009)

Homo Sovieticus

They pretend they are paying us and we pretend we are working,

Popular Russian saying during the Soviet Years.

Nature of Science

The nature of science is such that people who look for confirming evidence will always find it.

David Deming (12/02/2009)

'Moore' War

We have been in this war for twice as long now as the U.S. was in World War II, twice as long as World War II. We defeated Hitler and Tojo and Mussolini in half the time it's taken us to find Osama bin Laden.

Michael Moore

Medieval Warm Period

We must get rid of the Medieval Warm Period.

A major person working in the area of climate change according to Professor Deming (2008?)